Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey, I guess we can call this baby to order. Call the meeting to order first thing we want to do and then public comments. Nobody here. I hate to be so rude, but we're going to do away with public comments unless there's something. Nothing. Obviously nothing. Okay. We're going to move on to item three. Consider approval of the minutes for July 14, 2026, Planning and Zoning Commission, and taking necessary action. Okay, do we have any... Oh, here you go. Yeah, I got mine here. You can take this one, yeah. And I will take, combine these two here. This is the one that you got, right? And we should be okay. Okay. All right, so there are no citizens' comments. And the Planning and Zoning Commission is not permitted to respond to comments from the public for the Texas Open Meetings Act. And obviously there's no one here. We're going to move on to item three. Consider approval of the minutes for July 14, 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting and take any action necessary. If there is nothing that you guys are concerned about, then I just need to make a motion to approve. Or do I hear a motion? I can't make it then. Vote to second.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for July 14th. I second. I second.

All right. You're going to record the vote? All vote? Aye.

Aye.

All right. Pass unanimously. Item number four, SP2026-02. Consider a request from property owner Toby Kershaw for approval of a multifamily site plan for a new one-acre, two-building, 14-unit apartment project on Lot 7A, original city block 254B, addressed as 307 West Magnolia Drive, located approximately 315 feet west of the intersection of Shady Wood Lane. I guess you're going to tell us about this, right?

Yes, good evening. The applicant is not able to attend, but perhaps is on virtually. We've been working on this project for over a year. They came with the property and wanted to develop apartments on it and have been working with staff. So we've met extensively on the property. are requesting two buildings. There will be seven units in each building. It's already zoned multifamily and has been for quite some time. It's a full acre lot. And it will be going to the city council next week. So here are the case and aerial maps. So on the left is the property shown in blue circled. As you can see, it is directly adjacent to mini storage. behind it and you can see Shadywood Lane is over to the east and on the other side of that a block away is South Jefferson to kind of orient you. It's near the theater and some of the other things on South Jefferson and then the area map kind of shows the area as well. So just kind of as a review, our code requires any time a property, commercial property or non-residential property is developed with more than two buildings or it is a multifamily use. it comes forward for site plan approval by this board and then it's brought to city council primarily to make sure that the traffic flow and the development is appropriate for the property that it is on. So site plan has a number of elements It has drainage. It has the paving plan, the parking plan. Those things are located on the property and that's primarily a site plan where the utilities connections are. This one caused quite a bit of back and forth with staff and of course we have the city engineer that's been involved in it too for the entire time. which is approaching two years at this point from the time that the Kershaw's first reached out to me. It has, because it has the property that's developed, heavily developed behind it, drainage from that property from those storage units comes onto the back of this property and crosses it and then goes down Magnolia into a drainage area that goes over eventually underneath the railroad tracks. So you'll notice those two ponds at the front meet the requirements of our engineer who looked very carefully at the drainage. the right hand side is the landscape plan that's also part of a site plan review to make sure that the plantings are appropriate and for the neighborhood and so as you can see there are you know obviously you can't plant in the detention ponds but there are Bushes and and a few small trees that are per code also on the property and We have a fire review. So they've looked at the way that this is a hammerhead the back Since it obviously, you know, they can't go through the property because it's blocked at the back So that is turned around is it's considered adequate for any fire rescue And has the appropriate number of parking places also Another piece that is part of a site plan is that the requirement for elevations be looked at just to make sure that it is a good quality project and fits with the character of the neighborhood, which in this case is primarily adjacent to some multifamily, and there are some scattered single-family properties. And of course, you saw the big storage area behind it. So you can kind of look and see what they had proposed. Two stories, each unit, two story. well with the garage underneath and We also have a utility plan that shows the connections that are coming through that got also heavily reviewed by staff and our utility director and also Garrett, who is the public works director for the driveway connection to Magnolia. And then, of course, I mentioned the drainage and how extensive that was, and there's actually a drainage plan, too. So the applicant originally proposed it as 16 units. I think he wanted even more than that. We started at 16, could not get all of the elements that were required for the civil construction plans. And so he had to reduce it and make each building smaller. So that's where the 14 came from. So we've been working with him over the months to get this to the point where it was adequate from a staff perspective and still made sense for him. We're requesting condition that there are two conditions. One, that it be understood that all the infrastructure for the project is privately owned and maintained. And of course, for all projects, that's true. but we wanna make it emphasized just in case it becomes any time a condominium project, which is not something that the city can control. It's controlled at the state level, at the real estate, um business level but it i wanted to make it very clear that the that all the infrastructure is none of its city maintained at all on that property including the drainage and also that the driveway in in the hammerhead be striped as no parking with the red red stripes indicate that you there's no room for parking and along that driveway that each each unit has its own two spaces and there are three overflow spaces but there would be no parking signage to any questions the applicant couldn't be here but I can probably answer any questions if you have them. We have spent a good amount of time with this project, so I feel pretty comfortable with the level of, I guess, care that we've taken with it.

I don't particularly have any questions or any comments other than to say that I'm sure y'all have looked at it.

you're comfortable with it and yes this this is the first step and then once the site plan is approved then the applicant can apply for building permit and the building review starts and of course that would be for the two apartment buildings that have to be fire sprinkled they have to be you know the code the building code and all that that comes next after this so but yes I feel pretty confident that we've jumped through, had them resubmit multiple times to make sure that the engineers and all the staff are comfortable with what they're doing.

I don't have anything else or any other comments. Anybody else got any feedback or any concern? Then in that case, do I hear a motion to approve?

I make a motion to approve the site plan.

I make a second.

Okay, then item number four is approved. Aye. Oh, we got a vote. Aye. I figure they're all okay. Item five is the planning director's report. So I guess

I don't really have anything formal for you other than to say what I've said all along is that you'll be getting more to do. We have a preliminary plat for the multifamily piece at Anderson Town Crossing coming back because they're incorporating some more property into the Multifamily piece so that changes the preliminary plat and then then right behind that at the same meeting in September There's a site plan that shows an additional building multifamily building being proposed for that development and then if you remember lot four in anderson town crossing that was the connected to anderson parkway we did a final flat i guess in may april or may they now have their plans that they're bringing forward for a hotel um that home two suites on that property and so that that site plan again um normally if it was anywhere else besides a planned development area for town anderson town crossing you wouldn't see a site plan for a single hotel but they plant the PD zoning for all of that which was done before I got here specifies that every single development project every every new building comes back as a site plan review by this body also so you'll see that We are working to try and get the downtown the actual downtown zoning ordinance with the new uses to you in September also see how that comes along we that's in two pieces So we are proposing 13 new uses to our zoning table citywide that a lot of them do apply primarily to downtown but also appropriate for other parts of this city and so the 13 of those were changing the whole zoning ordinance to add 13 new uses and all of the use table as to which which commercial areas those uses can go into in addition to downtown and Either letting them in or keeping them out. So there's some of each and so that's one piece that's coming and then the downtown zoning piece itself on How that Not not the use table so much as how the buildings and the development standard come together and parking landscaping all that That'll be coming as well. So we may end up doing just a Uses first and the downtown zoning second and in a subsequent meeting But I'm not sure how we're going to manage all of the noticing because the downtown district We're proposing that it not change from what the historic district is now so at least that it's not a larger one, but there is some individual noticing requirements that are part of that as well. Whenever you're changing the zoning and the requirements on property, you have to notice all the property owners that are affected. And because it's new, a lot of that wasn't zoned at all. It's just very zoned. Then you're changing a rezoning. So that allows for every property owner within 200 feet also to be noticed. It's kind of a big deal just on trying to get all those out. Logistics and time. So we're probably, we may... Probably bring the 13 uses forward first, and then even though we won't have a downtown zoning district to change necessarily yet, but we'll put it in there for what those will be when it comes forward with the noticing to folks. but there's a lot going on, so that'll be September and October, and then we have a lot of other projects people are talking to us about, but I don't know. We may have a lull in October, November, and December, and I'm expecting we pick back up in January. That's all I got.

Okay, just out of curiosity, what's out on Tennyson? Is that an apartment project? Is that...

So the one that's underway in Montana. So that was the senior tax credit department, Pleasant Trail. So we did that back in April or May. It's 52 units. It was already zoned, and it was a tax credit. It came forward. City Council said, sounds great to us. And then the applicant, what they do is they go away, and they basically put their bid in with the state. for the available tax credits that make it attractive for people to invest and in each community has a certain criteria you bid on those and then the top the winners with all the criteria on the points get in each region get a certain number get funded every year well they won it last year And so then they brought this senior tax credit forward on that property and through this board, and now they're building it. It took them a long time.

Time, yeah. Well, I'm certainly glad because we need some apartments to buy it.

Yeah, and these are seniors, so people are pretty excited, I think.

Okay, what about the apartments behind the AT&T building?

Oh, okay, over, are you talking about?

Next to the, is that White Street?

Okay, White Street, they've broken ground. Yeah. They're working on those. I think there's 60, I can't remember how many units.

Can't be many of them. It's hidden.

It's behind wings of Mount Pleasant. It's directly adjacent kind of to it. Yeah, it's, I mean, well. That one came forward before you came on this board. The cycling came when I first got here, like in September, August, September of 2024. And that one had been on hold for a long time. And so it was underway when I came and then finally got it. It came through on its site plan approval and all that. But they had not had the ability to have their investors pull the trigger on it. And so they said, man, we hadn't even had permits looked at until recently, but they've got their funding apparently underway.

They're going strong back there.

Yeah, that one's going. And then the other one is over by McCoy's. That is a tax credit apartment. It's very skinny, so you have to look into the property to see it, but there are a number of buildings back there. That is not senior, but it is tax credit, and they're coming along pretty well to us on today. That is a hotel. Yeah, that is an extended state. And it's gotten pretty visible also. We have a lot of things underway. And then, of course, Anderson, his apartments are going. And then we also have the apartments over at Skyrise on the interstate.

On the interstate, yeah. Just out of curiosity, what's going in up here, the building right across the street? They're cutting some huge slabs out of that floor in there. I mean, have you seen that concrete saw bank there? The building right next to it.

Oh, you're talking about the grocery?

Is that what it is? No, no, right here, right across the street.

And they were taking it out of the back? Yeah. Yeah, they were redoing the floor in one of those next to the grocery in one of those units.

Oh, I thought somebody new might be coming in.

Yeah, I think it's a nail salon.

They're sawing out a huge chunk of concrete.

Yeah, I think they redid the floor or something. I don't know. They took out big chunks of concrete. I saw it, too.

Yeah, they did.

They've got a permit for whatever they're doing, I think.

Well, I'm sure they do. I just couldn't remember.

I vaguely remember that there's a salon or an event center or something going in there.

Okay.

Well, I'm just trying to get caught up on the local gossip, but I don't know what's going on.

All right. Anything else?

I have.

Okay. Well, we certainly appreciate the update. And I got caught up with the news, so I'm up to date. Moving on to item six, and that's do I hear a motion to adjourn?

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

I second. And vote?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Well, they, uh...